525 Tasting Notes

Help! I’ve been back less than a week and I’ve already almost spent $100 on tea! I knew this place was bad for me!

Anyway, I love the sweet syrupy goodness of this tea. Such a perfect way to get a sense of eating sweets even when you’re not. It’s one of the few rooibos teas that don’t even bother me with its rooibosness.

Have I not reviewed this yet? :O
I absolutely love this tea. LOVE.
First of all, it’s green rooibos. I wish tea makers would do more with green rooibos. I wish they’d chuck out red rooibos and just focus on the green. But anyway… The taste is so much like sweet ripe melon it’s like magic. You don’t need a lot of leaf to make a well flavored cup, but even so, I’ve ordered 3 pouches of this already in the last year. I never reorder teas at this rate. Delicious.

This tastes horrible. I feel like I’m drinking chemicals. How could something that sounds so delicious taste so awful? How can you go wrong when combining peppermint and chocolate?! Is it the sprinkles that taste like melted garbage? I love the minty coolness, but it’s just too disgusting otherwise. Is there anyone out there who loves this tea and wants a nearly full 2oz bag of this?

Hello Steepster. It’s been a while, huh?
So I recently got an email from DavidsTea saying, “Hey, we miss you! Here’s $10 off a $60 purchase.” And I was like, “Okay, I’m convinced.”
See, the reason I was gone so long was because I felt like my tea acquisition needed to stop, at least for a little while. Good tea is not cheap, and I had so much tea. And it’s only me drinking it, really, so it takes a while to get through everything. I still haven’t managed to drink away my stash, but I’m the sort of person that craves new experiences. My drinking had slowed down because I was bored by having the same teas available all the time. I know, so fickle. I also can’t handle more than 2 cups of caffeinated teas a day. That makes it harder to drink away all the delicious oolongs and greens I’ve accumulated.
So when I got that email, I was sort of jostled out of my bored tea rut. David was telling me, “hey, you haven’t bought anything in a while. Why not? Here’s a coupon!”

So here I am with a lot of new tea. I am so excited. I got a lot of non-caffeinated stuff. Some were old favorites, but this one was new. I actually brewed my own ginger beer once. It’s not bad, but I’m not a fan of fizzy drinks. This tea however! It captures all the best of a ginger beer. I bet it would be delicious iced, but it’s also delightful hot. The light ginger warmth soothes my sore throat and the fruit bits add sweetness. It actually tastes like it’s bubbly without feeling bubbly. Nice. I like it more than I expected to. Too bad it’s a fruit tea. Those often go so quickly as it takes a lot to brew a good cup.
Ah well, I’ll enjoy it while it lasts.

The smell of green oolong will always remind me of that time I was unemployed for half a year. It was when I really started to get into teas, and this was the kind of tea that first drew me in. I started each day with a lovely green oolong session as the sun flooded my kitchen with light. This Li Shan is exactly my favorite kind of tea. The scent alone forces you to slow down and appreciate the freshly bruised green aroma. Then you get the velvety smooth liquid in your mouth and it’s like swallowing spring flowers. It tastes like new life.

These days I take great tea for granted. Time to slow down and focus on the good things in life. Lately world news seems to get more depressing everyday. Need more tea breaks.

I begin to realize how much I love this as I am reaching the end of my 4oz pouch. It’s always the perfect tea for any situation. Delicious and perfect for right before bed. I feel only slightly guilty for drinking melted chocolate chips after brushing my teeth.

I do feel like there are too many chocolate chips. I’m not sure how much they contribute to the flavor.

Kind of meh. I ordered this trusting in all the positive reviews, but I should have trusted my instincts. Usually chocolate flavored things just disappoint me as the taste is generally quite artificial. I’ll stick with the natural cocoa flavors in teas like Laoshan Black. Soooo…now what do I do with this entire pouch of tea I don’t like that much?

I would also like to note that this tea packs quite a caffeine punch. Or maybe that’s just because I decided to skip breakfast? Either way, playing Skyrim while shaking with caffeine jitters is not a good idea.

I’m very picky about chocolate teas, but there are a couple that I like. I think it’s just done poorly a lot. Three Friends (Butiki), Chocolate Eclair (Fauchon), and Mousse au Chocolat (Mariage Freres) have been my favorites so far.

I quite liked this. It’s mildly creamy and almond. The base tea is smooth and would have made a lovely iced tea all by itself. I imagine this is the stuff sweet tea is made of.
I actually thought the lighter flavoring made this tea better than if the the base tea had been hidden away.

I wasn’t expecting much from this tea as I had given up on super high quality from this vendor. And while this is nothing special, it’s also not bad.
It’s light with a light smokiness. Barely there smokey. I get a bit of tobacco and sweet prunes. Astringency is there waiting for a moment of forgetfulness to ruin your cup. It’s not really my style, but it’s not offensive either. I’m quite liking the sweetness actually.

I recently purchased a set of samples from Whispering Pines which included North Wind and this one. I wanted to compare the base tea to the vanilla version. I have to say, this tea is pretty fantastic with vanilla beans added. You can’t go wrong with vanilla. Not getting the decadent fudge people are describing but it is good.

I feel inspired to add vanilla beans to all my teas. I had requested a pound of beans for a birthday 2 years ago and I still haven’t used them all even though I made a half gallon of vanilla extract. I’ve cut down on dessert foods lately so I guess tea is the best place for these beans now. It doesn’t take much vanilla bean to flavor a tea. I could probably do a bean or two for a pound worth of North Wind. :D Or add some to Laoshan Black. :D Plus cocoa nibs. :D Or I could play around with WP’s Fujian Black since it’s a tasty cheaper tea that would take well to vanilla and cocoa.

Have you ever tried the beans from Olive Nation? They are so much better than the ones I bought at the expensive grocery, and cheap. They are rich and moist. I wonder how they compare to other companies, though?

I haven’t! I think I was gifted beans from a seller on eBay. I’m not a vanilla expert, but they were delicious. Sweet . Aromatic, plump and sticky with moisture. Of course they are dry now 2 years later, but still great for simmering into custards and cutting up for vanilla sugar. :)

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I came from a tea drinking family, but I never appreciated the different qualities and varieties of tea until older. All that time wasted! But I guess I needed to be mature enough to appreciate the tea experience. :)

My favorite teas are green oolongs and white tea. I also love greens, especially gyokuro. I have a huge appreciation for rooibos and honeybush as they are often that only thing I can drink in the evening. I am a relatively new convert to black teas. This is unfortunate for my wallet but extremely wonderful for my palate. :)

In any case, I have a love for both flavored and unflavored teas. They are different experiences for sure, but both enjoyable. I find that it often depends on my mood.

I am on a quest to find a tea that will win my husband over. I think I’m making some headway…